


When the Storm Clears

by destielwithashotgun



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Child Abuse, Foster Care, Gen, Heyward kind of plays a big role, JJ deserves nice things, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape/Non-con Elements, idk - Freeform, maybe polyamory?, pope and jj have the best relationship, you can think of it like that if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:49:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24166894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destielwithashotgun/pseuds/destielwithashotgun
Summary: JJ spends 28 days in foster care before his caseworker shows back up. He's barely slept in that time. He's lost 12 pounds. And then DCS drops him at Pope's front door.In which JJ is finally safe. Heyward and Pope make sure of that.(That doesn't mean there aren't struggles)
Relationships: Heyward & JJ (Outer Banks), JJ & Kiara & Pope (Outer Banks), JJ & Pope (Outer Banks)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 269





	When the Storm Clears

He doesn't remember a lot about what happened that night. It's really just the soul crushing feeling of knowing that John B was dead that comes back to haunt him. John B was his safe place. His best friend since 3rd grade. He doesn't really know what to do without him. And so, in an act of almost unbelievable stupidity, he goes back home because he can't bare to go back to the Chateau. 

(It's one of the biggest mistakes he's ever made)

His dad is not happy that he stole the boat. Not happy is an understatement. He slams JJ onto the ground and punches until you can hardly see JJ's face. He doesn't stop when JJ stops screaming, stops moving, goes completely still underneath him. He doesn't stop when JJ passes out. 

He gets lucky. He doesn't get killed. It doesn't feel lucky when he wakes up in the hospital with Pope and Kiara at his side, Shoupe standing in the corner. He hardly gets to see them before a lady in a pantsuit walks into the room. 

"It's just for a little bit," Pope tries to reassure him. 

(JJ does what he does best and pretends he's fine, grinning and looking the DCS lady up and down. He feels sick)

The foster parents aren't too bad. They're polite to him, but nothing more. They lock up the pantry and the fridge so he can't get in there and steal their food. Not that he was in the mood to eat much in the beginning. And their son is home from college. 

He met their son when he stepped out of the shower, hair wet and towel wrapped around his waist. 

(His name was Lucas. JJ doesn't call him that.) 

Their son get's in his personal space immediately, eyes scanning JJ's body. JJ freezes, unsure how to proceed. It's one of the situations he was terrified of, one of the reasons he never told anyone about his dad. He doesn't want this. Their son doesn't care. He reaches out and JJ smacks his hand away. 

"Don't touch me," he snarls. Their son just laughs, and leaves him alone in the bathroom. 

He doesn't know what he tells his parents, only that the mom and dad are angry when he emerges, dressed, hair still wet. They yell at him, but JJ doesn't hear a singe word because their son is in the corner, smirking. He brushes up against JJ when he leaves, and JJ feels every muscle in his body tense. He doesn't go down for dinner. He's not hungry anyway. 

It happens a few times. JJ runs and hides every time. Their son touches him, grinning the whole time. JJ takes to hiding in the room they gave him, under the bed with the obnoxiously long comforter. He doesn't sleep often, terrified of their son coming in at night. He hardly leaves. His foster parents don't seem to care. 

(He left behind everybody who cared on the island. It wasn't a very big number)

By the time day 28 rolls around, JJ is exhausted. He's dropped nearly 12 pounds, eating only when he knew their son wouldn't be home during dinner, lunch, or breakfast. It's not very often. 

(He know's he could steal the key from around their necks, take enough food from the pantry to last him a week, but he's scared of coming out)

He DCS caseworker knocks on the door. 

He doesn't hear the conversation, laying under his bed and staring up at it, but then there's a knock on his bedroom door. He's immediately on edge. Not that he'd been relaxed before. His foster parents left him alone most of the time. As long as he wasn't causing trouble he know's they won't bother him, or even make him leave his room. They were fostering him because they were making almost 700 bucks a month. 

His caseworker finds him under the bed, eyes practically blank. He moves away from her touch. She's there to take him to his new foster home. 

He doesn't have much to pack. Lifting his bag makes him dizzy. It's not the first time he's felt like that. His caseworker leaves to talk to his foster parents. And their son walks into the room. 

JJ freezes. 

"Get away from me," He says, knowing he couldn't get in a fight. Not with his caseworker there, not when she was going to take him somewhere else. Maybe somewhere better. Probably not. 

"Heard you were leaving," Their son says. "Just wanted to say goodbye," and he crosses the room and puts his hand on JJ's shoulders. JJ stops breathing. Their son drags his eyes down JJ's body one final time, but other than his shoulders he doesn't touch. 

(JJ tells himself he's fine, he shouldn't feel violated, he's just weak.)

He thanks his foster parents, voice flat, eyes down. Then he's in his caseworkers car, and it smells new, and he doesn't know if he can relax yet. He's so goddamn tired. And then they're on the ferry. 

(JJ doesn't even notice it at first, the light giving him a headache.)

They're headed back to the Outer Banks. 

Pope opens the door before JJ's even up the walk to his house and then he's got an armful of his best friend and he pretty much melts into the touch that he knows, he knows is safe. God, he's so tired. Heyward is talking to his caseworker and JJ doesn't want to let go of Pope. Pope is safe. Like John B was safe. 

Pope pulls back and JJ realizes his eyes are wet. He blinks the tears away. He know's what Pope is seeing. He looks gaunt. The circles under his eyes were darker than they had ever been. But he had never been so relieved. 

His caseworker takes him to the side to talk to him about the rules. He doesn't listen to her, afraid to take his eyes off Pope, who's waiting for him anxiously in the doorway. But suddenly he feels brave. 

"You shouldn't let that other foster family take care of kids anymore," He tells her. "Not while their son is there." 

His caseworker looks taken aback. He tries to remember if he had ever said a single work to her before. He doesn't think so. "Why?" She asks. He know's she's not stupid. She can see how bad he looks. JJ shrugs. 

"Their son likes younger boys," He says. He doesn't really pay attention to what she says after that, trying not to remember. He doesn't want to talk about it. He just decided she should know. Finally she sighs and releases him into Heywards care. 

Pope doesn't let go of him for a long time. He tells JJ he looks like shit. JJ laughs, because he knows he does. He fall's asleep on their couch five minutes later, relaxing for the first time in nearly a month. Pope is safe. 

(He misses when Heyward comes in and he and Pope look at each other, having an entire conversation just with their expressions.) 

(He doesn't see Pope gesture to him, passed out on the couch and murmuring something under his breath, telling someone not to touch him, and Heyward agrees.) 

(He doesn't even feel when they pick him up and practically drag him into Pope's room, dumping him on Pope's bed and bypassing the air mattress entirely.) 

He wakes up almost a day later, and panics for a minute because he forgets where he is and he hadn't slept like that in a long, long time, and if he was sleeping that deeply who knew what their son could do to him? He freaks out even more when he realizes there's someone in bed with him, and then he realizes it's Pope and the events of before come rushing back to him. 

He sighs deeply, dropping back down onto the mattress. He's warm and comfortable, and he's safe, finally, and his arm is touching Pope's and it doesn't burn like it did whenever their son touched him. 

(He loves Pope the way he loves Kiara, and he never wanted to be separated from them again, which doesn't seem healthy, but nothing about JJ really seems healthy at this point)

Heyward and Pope are having Spaghetti for dinner. There are no locks on the pantry. JJ eats what he's given, until Heyward leaves and Pope tells him he can have more if he wants. 

He eats too much and his stomach isn't used to it, which means five minutes later he's bent over the toilet bowl throwing it all back up and Pope is kneeling next to him, looking horrified. JJ makes a joke, something about hangovers, and then gag's again. 

(Next time he gets a chance to eat, he tells himself, he'll take it slower)

Kiara comes over the next day and they all just sit together, tangled in the sheets on Popes bed. JJ hasn't slept on the air mattress yet. Pope had dragged him into his own bed the night before. 

Kie tells him he looks like shit, the same way Pope had said it when he first arrived, too concerned for it to sound mean. JJ leans into her touch when he puts her hand on his cheek, and then somehow he's asleep again, sandwiched between the only two people that he loves. 

He can't be with them forever, he knows, because they're together and he's the third wheel now, instead of the fifth, but he doesn't know where to go when they want to have Pope and Kiara Time, because he doesn't know how to feel about Heyward yet. 

(Heyward never liked him that much. JJ know's he should be grateful Heyward even took him in. He's more grateful than even Pope knows.) 

He steals a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread. The owner of the place he gets it from (he doesn't steal from Heyward) catches him. JJ doesn't have his old touch back yet, too desperate to find a way to stock up. Shoupe delivers him back to Pope's house, hand heavy on his shoulder. JJ tries his best not to pull away, shivering when the new Sheriff tightens his grip. He ignores the memory of his dad gripping him the exact same way before slamming him into the wall. 

Heyward is furious. 

(It's a quiet sort of furious, and JJ knows from experience that quiet anger can become explosive real quick)

He hesitates when Heyward tells him to sit down at the table, wanting to stay standing in case he needs to get away quickly, but he does it anyway. He never meant to cause Heyward this much trouble. 

"You stupid, stupid kid," Heyward is saying, and JJ is agreeing. He shouldn't have gotten caught. "What if DCS comes by and thinks you're some sort of criminal who we can't control and they decide to send you off to juvie?" 

(JJ knows that would be much worse than the foster home he had been in, and secretly thanks God that the store owner he had stolen from wasn't pressing charges.)

JJ's been staring at the table top the entire lecture, close to completely dissociating the way he had when his former foster parents had screamed at him. It's a mistake. 

"Are you even listening to me?" Heyward raises his voice, doesn't quite yell, but he does slam his hands on the table and that's enough for JJ. He's out of his chair the second he hears it, knowing what comes next and hitting the wall behind him, cursing himself for letting himself be cornered. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. 

(It takes him a minute to realize Heyward is calling his name)

He looks up, but Heyward doesn't look angry anymore. He looks like he's realizing something. Seconds pass. Heyward looks resigned. He doesn't follow JJ to the wall. JJ's grateful. He hopes Heyward can't hear his harsh breathing. 

"JJ why did you steal bread and peanut butter?" Heyward asks. JJ freezes, unsure of how he's meant to answer. If he does it wrong, will that mean Heyward get's even madder at him? He takes too long to answer. Heyward sighs. "Just answer the question, JJ." 

JJ hesitates, but Heyward doesn't look angry anymore and he forces himself to relax a little bit. He doesn't sit back down. "Just in case," he says carefully. 

"Just in case of what?" Heyward asks. JJ shrugs. He doesn't want to say anymore. 

Heyward sighs again, and then he's standing and JJ freaks out a little bit because he answered wrong and he has no experience with Pope's dad so he doesn't know what to do or if he can fix it or if it's better to just stay silent. He doesn't think he can speak anyway. 

"I don't hit kids JJ," Heyward says. It's shocking enough that JJ puts down arms he hadn't even realized he had brought up, intending to use them to cover his face. 

(He can't name the look on Heyward's face, but it doesn't look angry anymore.) 

"Listen to me. You aren't going to steal anymore, got it? That's a one way road straight back to DCS, who won't hesitate to take you if they think we can't control you." 

(JJ ignores how it feel to be told that Heyward doesn't want DCS to take him) 

"If you're hungry JJ, you can eat. We aren't restricting the food here, got it?" It takes a few seconds to understand what Heyward is talking about, but when it finally gets into JJ's head that he won't need to hide food anymore, he nods. Trusting is hard. He trusts Pope's dad. 

Pope is laying on his bed when he walks into his room (its their room at the moment, JJ remembers) and Kie is nowhere to be found. Pope looks up when JJ walks in, must see something on his face, and reaches out toward him. JJ takes his hand and Pope pulls him onto the bed. 

(JJ still hasn't used the air mattress yet. Every time he walks toward it Pope pulls him back and they both end up on his bed)

For a while, they just stay there. Pope is doing some sort of homework even though they're not back in school yet, and JJ stares at the ceiling. He's tired. There hasn't been a time since John B died that he hasn't been tired. 

"Are you ok? Pope asks him at some point. 

"I'm good dude," JJ replied. "Are you ok?" 

Pope nods, scooting closer to JJ. They fall asleep together, or maybe just JJ does, but Pope lays there with him until its time for dinner. 

They have chicken. Still wary of the loss of his bread and peanut butter, slightly unsure of Heywards promise, JJ eats more than he had been, trying to put more food in his stomach because he knows that if Heyward goes back on his word at least JJ will have a little more to tide him over. 

(It makes him feel a little sick, still not used to eating that much, but even though Pope comments on the fact that he looks green, JJ does not throw it up.) 

Two days later JJ accidentally cuts himself while he's outside, Pope and Kiara doing whatever they do when they're Pope and Kiara (and not Pope and Kiara and JJ) and suddenly half his hand is coated in his own blood. JJ stares at it for a second. 

It's not the first time he's slice his finger open fishing, but it is the first time he has to patch himself up at Pope's house. He knew what he could do to fix it at his own house, knew where all of John B's supplies were at the Chateau, but Pope's house is uncharted territory. 

(He tries to hide the fact that he's bleeding when he come into the house. It doesn't go the way he's planned.) 

Heyward practically meets him at the door, and JJ shoves his hand behind his back as he nods back at him. Heyward's eyes narrow, and then he's reaching for JJ's arm and ignores his flinch, pulling it in front of him. JJ tries to yank himself away. Heyward doesn't let go, grip tightening, and JJ attempts to quell the rising panic that brings. 

"Christ, kid, what the hell did you do?" 

"Nothing! I can take care of it!" JJ responds, ignoring the way his voice shakes as Heyward tows him to the kitchen. He doesn't know what he did wrong, which only makes things worse. His dad used to have invisible triggers too, usually when he was drunk, and those beatings were usually the worst. 

Heyward sticks JJ's hand under the running faucet, and JJ watches as the blood get's washed away quickly only to be replaced by more. 

"What did you cut it on?" Heyward asks, and JJ mumbles the answer, exhaling harshly when Heyward finally lets go of him to root around under the sink. He emerges with a brown bottle and yanks JJ's hand out of the water, immediately pouring whatever's in the bottle over the cut. It fizzes and stings. 

"Hey-Ow!" JJ says, realizing the bottle was hydrogen peroxide. "I can do it!" he snaps when Heyward moves to do it again, and Heyward hands him the bottle so he can cross the kitchen and look through another cabinet. 

(JJ pretends he doesn't feel relieved the farther Heyward get's, though Heyward has never hurt him. There's always the chance.) 

Heyward comes back with bandages and tape, ignoring JJ when he says he can do it. He's bandaged himself up before. Heyward wraps the bandages around JJ's finger and tapes it down. 

"Be more careful, please," He tells JJ when he's done. "And don't try to hide it next time." 

JJ doesn't know how to feel after that. If he was being honest, it felt good to be told to be careful. Heyward had said please. JJ wonders what would happen if he did it again, or hurt himself some other way. Would Heyward tell him to be careful again? Would he fix him up? JJ pushes the thought aside. 

Pope looks up when JJ walks back into the room later, finger bandaged and only slightly bloodstained. It didn't need stitches, but the bright red blood soaking through the gauze was still concerning, apparently. 

"JJ what did you do?" Pope asks, sitting up and reaching for JJ's hand. 

"Calm down man," JJ tells him, "It's just a cut." 

(He ignores the warm feeling in his chest when Pope fusses over him for a few more minutes) 

JJ doesn't get taken away from Pope's house, as on edge as he is about it. He doesn't ever end up sleeping on the air mattress either. That's ok with him. The nightmares don't follow him as much when he's in Pope's bed. That doesn't mean he doesn't sometimes wake up, panicked, even screaming on bad nights. Pope is always there to reassure him. Heyward helps later, much later, when he can tell JJ's finally comfortable around him. Pope get's nightmares too, about That Night. They all do. Kie tells them it's normal. JJ loves them both so much he doesn't even know what to do about it. 

They love each other, that's clear. They love him too, though not the way JJ feels. He's terrified of ever losing them. Sometimes he's scared of being alone again. There are nights where he can't sleep, limbs locked because he's sure Their Son is going to walk into the room at any moment with his burning touch. Sometimes Pope is away with him, grabbing his wrist lightly so he knows he's not on his own. 

Heyward follows his promise. That doesn't mean JJ doesn't flinch sometimes when the man moves too fast in his general direction. But JJ can talk to him without fear. 

He finally, finally recovers physically from his experience at the foster home. He knows in the back of his mind that there are much worse homes, and he's never been more grateful that he gets to live with Pope. He also knows there are good homes too, he just got unlucky because he's always been unlucky. Except for when they placed him with Heyward. He was pretty damn lucky there. 

He eats like a teenage boy is supposed to eat. He doesn't feel sick anymore. He doesn't steal food either. He still steals, but when he realizes it he makes an effort to put back whatever he took. Old habits die hard.

The exhaustion from nearly a month of not sleeping fades with a lot of naps and promises that his friends will be there when he wakes up. Pope's bed is his too. Kie and Pope are always there, even when they're not. He leaves when they want to have their Pope and Kiara time, but they never fail to call him back up for Pope and Kiara and JJ time. They also don't have their Pope and Kiara time on Pope's sheets, which is nice. 

(He ignores how he feels knowing that they think of Popes Sheets as JJ's Sheets too, even though he has a perfectly nice air mattress and they totally have the right to do whatever they want to do on Popes bed. He doesn't think about that.) 

School starts again. JJ is in the stupid kid class, which he used to skip like, half the time anyway. Heyward tells him he'll get taken away if he keeps ditching. He sounds like he would be upset if that happens. JJ stops skipping. Most of the time. 

(He also gets diagnosed with both Dyslexia and ADHD, about 10 years too late. Heyward takes the time to bring him to a doctor for it. JJ doesn't know how to feel about it, but he's grateful he finally has an excuse for the way the letters like to run off the page when he's reading.) 

JJ is safe, finally, and he's loved, and when he walks onto the stage to get his diploma when he graduates high school, Heyward cheers just as loud for him as he did for Pope. 

And then they get a call from John B.


End file.
